Worthington to run for Hancock’s seat?

Berkeley City Council Member Kriss Worthington announced this week that he intends to run for the state Assembly in 2008 to replace Loni Hancock, who’ll be termed out.

Worthington held a little soiree at a Berkeley restaurant and gave a moving speech, said community activist Jane Stillwater, who was there. “He said he’d only run if we voted for him then and there,” said Stillwater.

“So the 100 or so folks clapped and cheered voted for him unanimously and said we would come visit him in Sacramento,” she said. “Then he signed his application to run for Assembly and then we all trooped out to the corner mailbox and he dropped it in the slot. And everyone clapped again.”

But Worthington’s candidacy is subject to one big “if”: a ballot proposition headed for the February election could alter the state’s legislative term limits, allowing Hancock to stay in office she chooses. In that case, he’ll apparently opt out.

Worthington, who has represented the Telegraph Avenue area for the past 11 years, said he’s ready to make decisions in a larger arena. “I want to get Democrats to stand up to (Gov.) Schwarzenegger and either get him to compromise or defeat his bad ideas,” Worthington said.

Josh Richman

Josh Richman covers state and national politics for the Bay Area News Group.
A New York City native, he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and reported for the Express-Times of Easton, Pa. for five years before coming to the Oakland Tribune and ANG Newspapers in 1997.
He is a frequent guest on KQED Channel 9’s “This Week in Northern California;” a proud father; an Eagle Scout; a somewhat skilled player of low-stakes poker; a rather good cook; a firm believer in the use of semicolons; and an unabashed political junkie who will never, EVER seek elected office.